Judgement: Quezada jailed for life for murder

Thread: Ana Julia Quezada becomes the first woman in Spain to be jailed for life following 2015 change to law.

1. SENTENCING FOR MURDER OF GABRIEL CRUZ: Ana Julia Quezada sentenced to life in jail. All the details coming in this thread.
Published: Sep 30, 2019, 12:00 pm | On Twitter

2. Let's summarise the murder sentence first:
- life in prison
- absolute disqualification
- prohibited from residing in Níjar, 30 years
- prohibited from residing close to parents, 30 years
- may not approach, communicate with them, 30 years
- if paroled, five years under watch
Published: Sep 30, 2019, 12:05 pm | On Twitter

4. And the additional sentence for the two counts against the moral integrity of the parents:
- 1 year and 6 months jail (father, relationship aggravating factor)
- 1 year imprisonment (mother)
- 2 x special disqualification from the right to stand as a candidate in elections
Published: Sep 30, 2019, 12:13 pm | On Twitter

5. In addition to the life sentence and the additional years in jail for the other crimes, Quezada must pay each parent €250,000 euros in moral damages and must pay the expenses of the investigation and search for Gabriel back to the state, another €200,203.38
Published: Sep 30, 2019, 12:18 pm | On Twitter

6. The proven facts against Quezada (first part, the murder of Gabriel), which come from the of the 22-page list of verdict questions handed to jury at the end of the trial. This version of the child's death was the one defended by the Public Prosecutor's Office during the trial.
Published: Sep 30, 2019, 12:24 pm | On Twitter

7. And the proven facts about what happened afterwards, which also come from the 22-page list of verdict questions handed to the jury: she dug a pit, tried to cut off his arm and then spent 11 days fooling everyone and raising false expectations about where Gabriel might be.
Published: Sep 30, 2019, 12:30 pm | On Twitter

8. It was proven that on March 9 she wore a t-shirt with Gabriel's face on at the support march in the centre of Almeria and on March 11, when she dug him up, she said: "Where can I take him, to a greenhouse, don't they want a fish? I'm going to give them a fish, my balls".
Published: Sep 30, 2019, 12:35 pm | On Twitter

9. The jury did not believe any of Quezada's excuses, versions or requests for extenuating circumstances (confession, acting under the effect of drugs or killing Gabriel by accident), or the version of murder with extreme cruelty defended by the parents' lawyer.
Published: Sep 30, 2019, 12:38 pm | On Twitter

10. The judge, Alejandra Dodero, confirms that the proven facts constitute the crime of murder with the complete defencelessness of the victim, according to Article 139.1 of Spain's Criminal Code, and that a life sentence in order as Gabriel under the age of 16.
Published: Sep 30, 2019, 12:43 pm | On Twitter

11. Dodero refers to several Supreme Court rulings to recall the meaning of “alevosía” in the context of legal precedent surrounding the crime of murder in Spain: a situation in which the victim has no chance at all of defending himself.
Published: Sep 30, 2019, 12:47 pm | On Twitter

12. Dodero details the four types of defencelessness available in legal precedent, and emphasises two: sudden or unannounced defencelessness, also called “surprise”, and relationship or domestic defencelessness. She does not underline defenceless by physical superiority.
Published: Sep 30, 2019, 12:53 pm | On Twitter

13. Civil Guard officers testified that the Rodalquilar property was isolated, and it is obvious from the map. Quezada, his father's girlfriend, took Gabriel there and “suddenly, unexpectedly, and evidently intentionally, took the (minor) and threw him against the floor or wall”.
Published: Sep 30, 2019, 12:58 pm | On Twitter

14. The jury believed the forensic examiners' and pathologist's version vs. the medical experts put forward by parent's lawyer—and the judge highlighted the differences in authority and methodology in her final instructions to jury: there was no “hail of blows” with the axe.
Published: Sep 30, 2019, 1:02 pm | On Twitter

15. Dodero includes details of testimony from forensic examiners in court (behind closed doors during the trial) to refute the version put forward by the parent's lawyer: "Only one single act took place, he was not in agony for between 45 minutes and 90 minutes".
Published: Sep 30, 2019, 1:09 pm | On Twitter

16. Forensic examiners: “It is not easy to suffocate a healthy 8-year-old child, it is a big struggle, to cover the nose and mouth it is necessary to use both hands, if the child were unconscious it would have been less violent. The boy defended himself a lot before he died”.
Published: Sep 30, 2019, 1:10 pm | On Twitter

17. The injuries are not compatible with blunt force trauma with an object to the head or with Quezada throwing herself on top of Gabriel later on. They are compatible with suffocation: "The child is not hit very many times", said the forensic examiners.
Published: Sep 30, 2019, 1:15 pm | On Twitter

18. In the judgment, Dodero reminds the lawyers, who should already know, that expert reports from the parties do not bind the court. The private prosecution experts in this case did not take part in the autopsy nor did they analyse the samples.
Published: Sep 30, 2019, 1:20 pm | On Twitter

19. For the two counts of psychological abuse, a witness, Francisco M. M., said “The defendant at all times said that the child would appear until the day of the rally, when she said the child must have been killed, it's been too many days”.
Published: Sep 30, 2019, 1:26 pm | On Twitter

20. Quezada's daughter, Judith: “During the days of the search, I didn't notice anything special about my mother. She was okay at times and at others bad, crying. She accompanied her mother to Rodalquilar. She said we should go there, that I feel peace there, on the property".
Published: Sep 30, 2019, 1:28 pm | On Twitter

21. Judge has included the testimony of the two Civil Guard officers who took the sequence of photos of Quezada digging Gabriel up in Rodalquilar on 11 March, including one in which she is holding the child in her arms. Was very hard to look at those in the courtroom during trial
Published: Sep 30, 2019, 1:32 pm | On Twitter

22. Judge also includes part of the forensic psychiatric report and their expert testimony: Gabriel's parents have suffered irreparable psychological damage, "pain that remains, unable to adapt to the situation”, “it is permanent damage, no recovery is expected".
Published: Sep 30, 2019, 1:37 pm | On Twitter

23. Dodero: “such injuries have been caused by the defendant, the former romantic partner of Ángel. The injurious result needed medical treatment for a cure that will never be complete”.
Published: Sep 30, 2019, 1:40 pm | On Twitter

24. The crimes against moral integrity. Criminal Code prohibits "treating a person as a thing, degrading him to condition of animal or object". “The defendant intentionally wanted to vilify, humiliate and brutalise the boy's parents, to treat them as things”, Dodero write.
Published: Sep 30, 2019, 1:45 pm | On Twitter

25. Judge includes a couple of details from the testimony of Patricia Ramírez, Gabriel's mother and Angel Cruz, his father.
"I felt Ana hurt me from day one, she was playing with us", said Mrs. Ramírez.
Published: Sep 30, 2019, 1:49 pm | On Twitter

26. Was not credible that the child had said to Quezada "ugly black woman, I want my father to be with my mother", according to the testimony of his parents and relatives.
Gabriel "was a very polite, introverted child", "correct, educated in the idea of not hurting, sensitive".
Published: Sep 30, 2019, 1:54 pm | On Twitter

27. At the legal level, with the conflict of superiority in defencelessness and the young age requirement in the article of the Criminal Code that deals with life sentences, Dodero rules that there were several modes of defencelessness present at once in this crime.
Published: Sep 30, 2019, 2:01 pm | On Twitter

28. "In this case there is defencelessness regardless of the age of (minor). The hyper-qualification provided for in Article 140.1.1 of the Criminal Code is appropriate, in view of the age of the child (8 years)".
In Spanish legal Latin: "bis in altera", not "non bis in idem".
Published: Sep 30, 2019, 2:02 pm | On Twitter

29. Judge rejects €160,000 compensation for Gabriel's grandmother, Carmen Sicilia, because she did not take part in the case and because she was not part of the boy's immediate family (mum and dad).
Published: Sep 30, 2019, 2:08 pm | On Twitter

30. "…I must condemn and I do condemn the defendant ANA JULIA Q. C. as the criminally responsible author the previously described crime of MURDER, with the aggravating circumstance of relationship, to a revisable whole-life prison sentence…”
Published: Sep 30, 2019, 2:10 pm | On Twitter

31. Here is the link to the complete judgment in the trial for the murder Gabriel Cruz: https://pdf.thespainreport.es/sentencia-caso-gabriel.pdf
Published: Sep 30, 2019, 2:16 pm | On Twitter

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